Do you need a 'career'?

Question

By this I mean a personally fulfilling occupation which interests you, rather than something that'l earn you heaps. See, I've trained as a teacher, always thought I would have a career, have experience with all sorts of children, but can't get a teaching job. I work in a shop, a pub, and do agency work- occasionally teaching, usually nursery work being bossed about by well meaning kind teenagers when I am like 10yrs older with heaps more experience and education than me. I just want a permanant job, but I feel like I'm selling my soul to do something I don't care about. Is a career really necessary for happiness, or can you just get on with work and go home and enjoy life outside work? Does it matter?

And if I don't get a job I care about does that make me a failure?

Answer 1

I'd like to start by making a distinction. Having a job is not the same thing as having a career. Working in a job and being happy in that job is independent (largely) of whether that job forms part of a career path. You can follow a career and still be miserable - I know, I have; or you can job hop and land in a job that is wonderful. It's the luck of draw - understanding of course, that you make a lot of your own luck!!

Another point is that there appears to be an implicit assumption that following a career path gives you a better chance of having jobs that you like because you're following a line of work that interests you. I'd tend to agree with that. But there's more than the work itself happening in any job. One other major part of working in a job is the people you have to work with. Politics exists in every company and people can make you miserable no matter how rewarding the work that you do - something you seem to be alluding to in your question.

In my experience (which I hope is atypical) I have never found that work was a happy experience, despite having a 'career' and earning 'loads of money'. As direct consequence of this, my life outside of work was adversley affected. So 'Does it matter?' - if I could redefine the question as 'Does [being happy at work] matter?' - definitely.

For me work has always demanded too much and given back little in the way of anything, with the exception of money. Sometimes very, very good money. But that old saying that 'money can't buy you happiness' is very true. There are many more things in life that need to be in place before you can find peace and the happiness that comes with it. Money, like work, is important but it too is just a component.

I binned my 'career' (together with 6 figure salary) when my first born son arrived, back in 2002. My priority is family first and my job/career demanded so much that I was absent 95-99% of the time - that was a recipe for divorce and change was needed.

I quit just over 4 years ago knowing I was walking into a career vacuum and since then I've been job hopping and equally as miserable, this time through sh1tty jobs and low pay (although I'm not bemoaning that - I made a choice). Even though I have more time with my kids and home life is better in many respects, the issue of work still has an impact. I wish it didn't or that I could turn it off somehow, but I can't.

Recently, the path ahead has become clear again and it looks like I might, just might, have found the right direction. A new 'career' becons - I'm excited about it. Hopefully, it will mean that I can find employment locally, doing something I'm interested in. These jobs pay decent money and should give me time with my family too. So, I now have a plan and I intend to give it a go. The reason why I have that plan is that I haven't stopped looking/searching for a better path; and neither should you. Whether I'm miserable in this new career will be down to me, my colleagues and the work itself. I'll have to successfully mange all three of these components for it to 'work'. The other components (locality and time commitment) which were ruining my previous jobs/career, well it's looking like I've finally cracked these, but it has taken 4 four years and a complete change of direction, to do it.

It's the big four oh next birthday for me (that's 'oh' as in OH MY GOD!!!! So you can see I've had plenty of life experience) and these are the factors that I would suggest would make me the happiest - your factors might be (and probably will be) different (and there's no particular order here):

Time - enough for me and my family and friends;
Money - enough. For me that's enough to pay my way and to have some left over for fun and a rainy day, others need more, some others need lots more;
Security at work - knowing that my job isn't going to vanish at the drop of a hat or at the whim of some psycho manager;
Stability at work - not getting bullied or set up to fail, feeling as though I have the support fo my colleagues rather than fighting against them;
Satisfaction at work - doing something that makes me feel as though I'm making a positive contribution (a highly personal one this, different strokes for different folks etc);
Friends - people who I care about outside of my family, people who care about me too.
A stable relationship with my wife - hard to find at times and this has been down to me, to her and to circumstances sometimes (but not always) beyond our control (but at least we keep trying);

I honestly can't think of anything else - so for me there's not that many factors to juggle, but of these 7 factors 5 are directly work related and of the remaining 2, at least 1 of these (and possibly both) is/are indirectly affected by work. So for me work and being happy there is a very important component of my life. This must be true for very many; and so your question is very pertinent.

All I can suggest is that you identify exactly what it is that you want - What are the things that are important to you? Then move your life in a direction that gives you more of what you want. The converse, which is to move away from the things that you don't like - I would warn you away from this. It's far better to plan and move towards a goal, than it is to run away from a situation. If you're setting and achieving targets and goals, that will be a significant and positive boost to you self-esteem and your inner peace. Running away will make you feel like a failure, so don't.

Finally, don't give up. It's taken many years of hard work and lots of stress for me and that hasn't stopped yet and probably never will. Change takes time, the speed of change you achieve is a measure of just how much you want those changes. Another pearl of wisdom regards money, if you're dissatisfied with your pay and think that your worth more - think on this, you get paid exactly what you are worth, not a penny more not a penny less, and if you think that you're worth more then you'll make the necessary changes to make it happen. Same goes for your job, too. These are excellent ways of focusing your mind on the fact that these issues are your reponsibility and that you will need to take action to make changes; and it stops you bitching and moaning about them too, which isn't good for your mood in any event.

Life as a citizen in a modern democracy is tough, even keeping level (never mind getting ahead) can be a struggle. Don't be too hard on yourself whatever happens, but never relinquish responsibility for your circumstances and try and keep focused on what you want and how to get it.

If you think that following a career will help - go for it. If job hopping isn't right for you - stop. Whatever you decide take action and take reponsibility for those actions and keep doing that until you get what you want.

I hope you find this useful.

Good luck. LT

Answer 2

If you do something you enjoy, it can be fulfilling but the reality is that this is not usually the case. Most people are doing jobs so that they can pay the bills, support themselves and their loved ones.

I suppose it depends on what your goals in life are - if building a career is one of them, then I'd say keep at it until you get what you want. However if you believe you can find happiness in other things then you don't have to kill yourself all in the name of building a career.

There are loads of people out there with great career yet they do not feel fulfilled and give it all up to seek happiness in something else e.g travelling, religion, family etc. At the end of the day, it's up to you. Whatever you do, try and be happy because life is precious.

Answer 3

I have always wanted to do my job (I'm not going to say what that is - but that doesn't really affect what I'm saying) and now I am doing it. There are many things about it that satisfy me, and it lets me do things that I couldn't possibly do was it not my vocation.

Even so, I find it impinges on my personal life to an unwelcome degree, and I cannot help but think that I could have a better life with a 'regular', steady and well paid job. Naturally, this could be a boring nine-to-five existence, but, really, what's so bad about that?

If you can find a job where there are people you get along with, and it allows you to pursue your own interests - some of the things you do care about - when you are out of work hours - and even facilitates them through the salary - then why not?

Answer 4

I think both. It is important to enjoy life outside of work, but it is also important to find something that you truly enjoy. You know the saying, if you enjoy doing it, then its not work. I also think that no matter how much you love or hate your job, sometimes, money matters more. I imagine that no one loves working at McDonald's, but, if they are dirt poor and need money just so they can eat, they would appreciate that they have a job, even if they hated it.

Answer 5

I feel that you need to work in an enviroment that you enjoy, otherwise you are just working to survive. You likley won't be happy, and it will drag you down. Teachers (generally speaking) arn't paid well, but they shape the future. If they enjoy teaching, the students will enjoy learning. Perhaps you might be able to find a teaching job in another part of the country.
Perhaps you might find a lead in one of the following links.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=teaching+jobs

Answer 6

It is nice to try to do something that is personally fulfilling but sometimes life can seem as if it is making it very difficult for you to achieve this.
I think it is still possible to have a life outside work.